MusicTeacherGifts.com 10th Annual Youth Music Composition Competition
2023 Compositions - Ages 9 to 14 Entries - Distinguished Judges are Giovanni Piacentini, Jennifer Jolley and Edward Yuwei Lu
First Place - Matthew Hodge Second Place - Roger Guo Honorable Mention - Kasra Tavakoli
A note from Becky Chaffee, MusicTeacherGifts.com Owner and Creator: All these students are very talented. They have different amounts of experience and instruction. No one should be discouraged if they don’t “place”. This competition is meant to encourage the students. Many tell me, they enjoy seeing each others work for inspiration. (Most of the student entries are presented below, or on the pages noted for their age group - scroll down).
I am proud that both experienced young composers and composers with little or no instruction are comfortable entering this competition. I think the most important part of this is the judges’ feedback to fuel future work for each student. In addition, it is great for the students to see what others are creating. The judges and I also love to hear the student work.
This competition was created by myself, Becky, through my music gift shop, MusicTeacherGifts.com. I create everything sold on this website, and hope that you will purchase gifts here for your teachers and friends to help support this project. My time is volunteer work. There are many, many unseen hours that I pour into this competition in addition to finding the wonderful volunteer judges, and donating the prize money with the help of Performers Music of Chicago and SheetMusicPlus.com. Please look up the work of the amazing judges here, and give our sponsors your business. Thank you.
For this special 10th year of my competition, I asked many people for more donations to have bigger and more prizes. A special thank you to donors GUBMK Constructors (in honor of my late husband, Duane Chaffee); Pam Robertson, Composer and Pianist; Fay Adams, Piano Teacher Extraordinaire, UTK Piano Professor Emeritis; and Jiaqi Liu, Past 1st Place winner and Composition Student at The Juilliard School. We now have a small savings to start the competition next year!
Gifts created by Becky Include violin, cello, guitar and piano purses, music stickers, Music (and other)note cards, two books to encourage practicing... They are great gifts for a teacher studio, music classroom or any age student. Find book related gifts too, such as music lesson prints, T-shirts, note cards, pillows. Have Fun With Your Music is a new concept for a book for very young music students to laugh and think. It encourages students to make practicing their own. Click on Book Photos on right to Purchase.
And for the composers, we now have composer paraphernalia.
If you would like something specific, do not hesitate to ask Becky. Becky@MusicTeacherGifts.com
Find Youth Compositions from ages 15 and 16 HERE, and from ages 17/18 HERE.
Presentation of 2023 Composition Entries, ages 10 - 14
Students are presented in alphabetical order. I consider all the students to be winners!
Hudson Dong, “Restless Moments”
Roger Guo, “Adagio in F”, 2nd Place
Roger Guo, age thirteen, is a private student of Daniel Wood in San Francisco Bay Area. He attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division.
In the past few years Roger has composed several pieces. He also conducted the school orchestra in the performance of his Fugue for the school spring concert. The MusicTeacherGifts.com Youth Music Composition Competition is his first award in music composition.
In addition to music composition, Roger plays the piano. He pursues interests including painting, writing, and cross country running. He currently attends Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough, California.
Matthew Hodge, “Waves”, First Place, “Two Night Pieces for Violin and Piano”, and “A Red, Red Rose”
Matthew Hodge is a 14-year-old classical music composer and musician in the mountains of central Virginia. Matthew was a finalist in the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Junior Composition Competition in 2023, as well as winning the Young Talent Award and an Honorable Mention in the Classic Pure Vienna International Composition Competition in November 2022, and first place in the Wednesday Music Club’s composition competition in February 2022 along with others. He also was first published at 14.
He studies piano with Jo Pettitt, studies Violin and Viola with Lianne Campbell, composition with Dr. Samuel Wellman, and voice with Xavier Taylor. He plays viola in the high school group of the Youth Orchestras of Central Virginia (YOCVA), and plays violin and piano in the YOCVA’s chamber music program, where multiple compositions of his have been performed. His passion is music, especially composition. His compositions have been described as having “beautiful builds and decays,” and “a beautiful atmosphere.” An important aspect of composing music to Matthew is to make it simultaneously beautiful to listen to and academically interesting.
Note: Mathew submitted 3 compositions, and received 1st place with “Waves”.
Anthony Lama, “Prelude No. 1 in a Minor”
Anthony Lama, age 14, lives in Ithaca, New York with his parents and brother. He is excited to enter high school in the fall. Anthony has been playing piano since the age of three, and he is currently playing pieces by Ravel and Rachmaninoff. Anthony also enjoys playing the oboe, singing, reading, and computer programming. Anthony composed his first piece - on the recorder - in the third grade. He began formal composition lessons at the age of 11.
Benjamin Rauh, “Piggy Party Rock”
Benjamin is 13 years old and lives in Rochester, MN where he is homeschooled. He plays the French horn and the piano. He is in band, orchestra and jazz band. His favorite ensemble to compose for is orchestra. He also enjoys drawing, writing and rock climbing.
Ronan Sands, “Whisper of Winter”
Ronan Sands is a thirteen-year-old cellist, pianist, and composer. He has been studying cello since age 7 and recently began studying composition seriously. He studies cello under Noreen Silver and recently won the 2023 Young Stars of Maine Cello Prize. In 2022, he was invited to compose a piece for cello for the Winter Solstice Cello Fest in Bangor, Maine. His work “Whisper of Winter” received a standing ovation. Though Ronan originally fell in love with classical music, he enjoys a variety of musical genres, including folk music and video game soundtracks. He lives on a small farm in Maine with his parents and is a first-generation musician.
Aadit Shrivastava, “Ballade for Solo Violin”
Aadit Shrivastava is a composer, pianist, and violist. In 2021, he won the Walden School Alumni Composers Competition, and Yarn/Wire premiered one of his 6 Nocturnes for solo piano. In 2022, Yuri Lee premiered his Ballade for solo violin. In 2023, he earned the gold medal for composition and was a finalist for piano in the Young Maestro Competition. Yuri Lee performed the Ballade again in the competition. He also earned 4th place in the Charleston International Baroque Competition for piano. Recently, Aadit has been workshopping his first String Quartet with the Newark Academy Select Chamber Group. The first movement was performed in December, and the second movement will be recorded in May. In April, he also played the Schumann Piano Quintet with the group. Aadit currently studies with Daniel Felsenfeld for composition and Christine Ciuffredda for piano.
Karissa Tang, “Milk and Honey, A Journey Through the Desert”
Kasra Tavakoli, “Whirlfire” (He is below our age level of 10 - so a noted entry)
Kasra Tavakoli just turned 10 last week. He started piano classes when he was 5 and thrived under Tatiana Kasman as a famous piano master in the following years with several honors and certificates including winning of the piano contest in the state of Alabama 2 years in a row before he moved to Washington DC.
He has perfect pitch and created his own pieces when he was only 7. At age 9, he started formal composing classes.
He loves reading and creates his pieces with inspirations from the stories and nature elements such as waterfalls, birds migrations and season transformations.
Vincent Tsai, “Thunderous Clouds”
Vincent is a 14-year-old musician. He started to learn to play piano in first grade and cello in third grade. He has developed his passion for composing since the pandemic and aspires to write more in the future. He loves writing symphonic music and is mainly self-taught, but he gets feedback from other composers and teachers to help him with his composition skills occasionally. When he is not playing music or composing, he loves playing chess and Tetris.
